Two people, back-to-back. I see them as Male and Female. They stand on a teeter-totter which is balanced at the moment. There is a swirl pattern of energy that could unbalance them if they let it.

There is a strong balance vibe here:
Male and Female
Teeter-Totter
Two Green Earth Spirits back-to-back
Two Veiled Spirits - one white, the other black - looking down upon the balanced couple
Half the sky is blue and sunny; the other half is dark, moon-lit with two stars
Two chess pieces, a black knight and a white knight sit on opposite sides facing each other
The floor is a black-and-white gridded pattern

Unlike most of the cards in this deck, the sides are not stone columns and arches, but curtained. The each curtain is tied back with a strand of pearls. There are matched swords and shields resting against the curtain-walls. The sword blades have a double-helix pattern. The swords the two people hold also have this double-helix pattern.

There is a golden hanger/bracket at the upper center of the card. A strand of pearls hangs from it. The lowest pearls of this necklace and the sword points of the two people meet and a spark is generated.

The balance here, feels deliberate. There are forces within (the Green Earth Spirits) and forces without (the Veiled Spirits) who have an interest in what is happening. They serve to anchor (Green Spirits) and shift (Veiled Spirits) the situation as needed. The two people standing back-to-back is a classic defense position - each has the other's back but also faces an incoming enemy. They work together.

But there is ebb and flow in Life. Do we see balance here because we are at the dividing line between Day and Night? One must yield to the other. Here we have an empass - stasis - someone needs to decide to yield to the other for time and the tides to move again.

The two people in this card have their swords drawn as if ready to battle one another...yet, how can they, because they are standing back to back? They would have to turn around...make the decision to turn around...to be able to have it out with one another. So, here is the need to decide to do something before any action can be taken. Yet neither is making that decision at the moment. Any move would upset the balance of the board they are standing on. So, maybe keeping the balance is more important at the moment than deciding to turn around to fight one another.

Also, because they are back to back, neither of them can read the emotions in the face of the other. So, is it deliberate that they are hiding or turning their backs on their emotions--or the emotions that they might be able to read in the other if they were only facing one another? Probably not, as I think this is often a big part of the Two of Swords tradition. They are keeping the peace merely by virtue of being unable to fight one another because they are not facing one another.

Still, they have those big swords drawn, so it is a tenuous peace, at best. There is something in the air that causes them to keep those swords drawn, even if they are not prepared to use them just yet.

The one thing that stuck out to me that no-one mentioned is the fact that the central figures are also blind-folded. Maybe they are a pair, not in combat with each other, but together against the unknown (as Rede Seeker previously mentioned), the only thing that they are sure of is each other's presence.

The board ends at their feet, but because they are blindfolded, they do not realise the floor is merely a footstep away. Maybe they are stuck, paralysed in fear of the unknown, with the only certainty being each other, in a stance waiting to battle whatever unforseen foe comes their way.

It also occured to me that maybe they have not even realised that whoever put them in this precarious situation has long since fled the scene.

The more I look at their attire, the more convinced I am, that they are in fact a pair from the same "group", the identical weapons (both swords and knives on their waists) the red tunic, with the yellow shirts, same belts, green bottoms and even the same boots. Maybe this is even an initiation into the group - hence the "watchmen" at the scene.

Well, considering the morning I'm having, I think this is a very telling card for me. What I'm really seeing here is the inaction of the card. Both figures stand at the ready, but no one is actually doing anything. Things seem to be imbalance, but if anyone moves, everything gets thrown off kilter.

This is what is reflective of my life right now, so it's what see. Balance is what is needed, but it's not external balance. It's finding a balance on the inside. It's about inaction and reaction. There's no balance inside, so each reaction to outside influences is extreme and irrational. The other option is often to sit in fear doing nothing, frozen in a sense of confusion.

For me, this card is about facing those elements of the self that are not cohesive, and finding a way to bring them together with a sense of balance. Finding a middle ground and not responding to things in a chaotic manner. It's about recognizing that things are often only as scary or unmanageable as we choose to make them. If we have a sense if internal balance, and we trust ourselves, we can handle whatever comes at us from the outside world. Without that inner balance and a real understanding and acceptance of who we are, everything feels overwhelming and insurmountable.

The inner work to be done - the integrating and finding the balance within - that will free me, I think.

Just not sure how to do that at the moment. And so I stand, poised and in contemplation. Unable to move.

Yep. I so understand that. When you don't have a clue which way to go, you often get left standing in the same spot. Maybe the answer is just to make a move one way or the other, even if it's not the "perfect" decision. I think I get caught up in making the wrong decision and I get stuck. I don't really know if there ever is only one right answer.

I think this card shows how pointless it is to just stand still doing nothing. Maybe the clarity comes as you move forward, and we shouldn't expect it to come to us before we take a step?

I like this. Its not so much what the act is, its the moving itself that is moving forward.

The card is - as you have said - illustrating the folly of inactivity. Don't just stand there, do SOMETHING. ANYTHING.

But sometimes, that is hard. An object at rest....
Ya know?

I do know, all too well.

One of my favorite sayings is, "It's never too late to be what you might have been." It gives me hope.

This card reminds me that you can't go wrong as long as you're trying. The only true failure is to stop making the effort. As long as you are moving forward, even if you're making tons of mistakes, you are still moving forward.

You lose all semblance of balance when you stop and become paralyzed with fear. Like a deer caught in headlights, you get run over instead of making it to the other side of the road.

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